Archaeologiai Értesítő 145 (2020) 39–68 SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN© 2020 BASIN The Authors 39 DOI: 10.1556/0208.2020.00002

SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN The Sources, Circulation and Value of Ivory in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Ádám Bollók* – István Koncz**

Jelen tanulmány célja az elefántcsont mint nyersanyag lehetséges forrásaira és értékére vonatkozó, a római és a késő ókori mediterrán világból származó adatok áttekintése, információkat nyerve ezáltal a 6–7. századi Kárpát-medence régészeti hagyatékából előkerült elefántcsonttárgyak erede- tére, elérhetőségére és árára vonatkozólag. A hellenisztikus kortól a kora középkorig terjedő idő- szakban a Földközi-tenger vidéki elefántcsont-kereskedelem dinamikáját megvilágító írott és tárgyi források áttekintése nyomán úgy tűnik, hogy a 6–7. századi Közép-Duna-vidéki elefántcsonttár- gyak nyersanyaga a Földközi-tenger medencéjén keresztül Afrikából, ezen belül is talán a konti- nens keleti feléről érkezett. Megállapítható emellett, hogy a mediterrán világ keleti és középső régióiban készült, a Kárpát-medencébe elkerült elefántcsonttárgyak nem tekinthetők kiemelkedően drága luxusjavaknak, többségük viszonylag szerény áron megvásárolható volt.

Kulcsszavak: elefántcsont, távolsági kereskedelem, reprezentáció, vörös-tengeri kereskedelem, római indiai-óceáni kereskedelem, késő ókor, Kárpát-medence, langobárd kor, avar kor

The present paper seeks to examine the available data on the possible sources and monetary value of elephant ivory, both as raw material and finished products, in the Roman to late antique Mediterranean world in order to gain a better understanding of the wider context of elephant ivory artefacts dating from the sixth and seventh centuries discovered in the Carpathian Basin. After reviewing the written and material evidence on the dynamics of the Mediterranean elephant ivory trade from the Hellenistic period until the Early Middle Ages, our main conclusion is that the raw material of the sixth- to seventh-century ivory objects of the Middle Danube Region in in all prob- ability originated from Africa, possibly from the continent’s eastern parts, and arrived to this area through the Mediterranean. It is further argued that the few artefacts manufactured of elephant ivory in the eastern and central regions of the Mediterranean that reached the Carpathian Basin cannot be regarded as extremely expensive luxury goods – in fact, their majority would have been quite affordable to customers of more modest means.

Keywords: elephant ivory, long-distance trade, social display, Red Sea trade, Roman Indian Ocean trade, Late Antiquity, Carpathian Basin, Langobard period, Avar period

1. Introduction

In a previous study, currently awaiting publica- * Ádám Bollók: ELKH – Research Centre for the Humanities – tion, we covered the chronology and geographic Archae­ological Institute; 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4.; distribution as well as the cultural connections of e-mail: [email protected] the sixth–seventh-century ivories from the ** István Koncz: ELTE – Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of 1 Archaeological Sciences; 1088 Budapest, Múzeum körút 4/B; Carpathian Basin, and sought to find an expla- e-mail: [email protected] nation for why the currently known pieces show a concentration in the middle third of the sixth 1 For the sake of simplicity, throughout this paper “ivory” will denote “elephant ivory”. For the different sorts of ivories, see  Manuscript accepted: April 23, 2020. Manuscript receiced: the brief introductory discussion in Koncz–Bollók in press. June 27, 2020. Unless otherwise indicated, all dates are AD.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 40 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ century and in the western half of the Carpathian ivory carvings reaching the Carpathian Basin Basin, then under Langobard rule, while ivory that have been preserved in the sixth–sev- objects are virtually absent from Gepidic- and enth-century material record as well as the sourc- Avar-period burials, even though both the histor- ing of their raw material, albeit the latter with ical sources and the archaeological record clearly certain constraints. The former is instructive be- attest to the quite intense Mediterranean contacts cause it is still one of the commonplaces of East- of these two peoples.2 This scarcity is particularly Central European archaeological studies that striking in the case of the Avars, given that the ivory was a scarce and expensive luxury item textual and material record leaves no doubt that available to, and affordable for, few in Late the military campaigns against Byzantium, the Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Even diplomatic relations, and the “shopping sprees”3 though Anthony Cutler strove to dispel this to the Roman lands would have provided ample widely-held premise already in the 1980s, citing opportunity for acquiring a wide range of the evidence that contrary to all expectations, the Byzantine goods, ivory carvings among them. As price of ivory in the fourth–sixth centuries was part of our inquiry, we sought to explore several surprisingly low,5 his arguments made little in- potential explanations in detail, among others road into, and had but limited impact on, early that (1) ivory was a highly prized commodity medieval archaeological studies in Central and was therefore extremely expensive, and (2) Europe.6 The available evidence has increased the fact that raw ivory and various objects carved during the past three decades and has fully con- from it became virtually unavailable at the time firmed Cutler’s assertions. Earlier assumptions the Avars arrived to and settled in the Carpathian about the changes in the price and value of ivory, Basin, meaning that ivory carvings either did not on its origins and sources as well as on the dy- reach this region or no more than a few pieces namics of its trade can now be enriched with new did. We first examined the potential sources of data and insights, in part owing to the growth of ivory during the centuries of Late Antiquity, as the material record and in part to the increasing well as at what price and for how long ivory prominence of archaeometric analyses. It seems was available to the population of the Eastern to us that in the light of the evidence presented Roman Empire and Italy, the most probable here, both the value of the ivories known from source of the ivory articles known from the the sixth–seventh-century archaeological record Carpathian Basin. Our ultimate conclusion was of the Carpathian Basin and the sources of the that the low number of ivories from the early me- objects’ raw material can be determined with a dieval Carpathian Basin can be attributed to cul- fair degree of confidence. tural preferences rather than to the price of this raw material or its availability. Knowing that ivory as a raw material was less suited to recy- 2. The sources and price of ivory cling and to wealth accumulation than precious in the Roman-period and late antique metals, and that a part of the ivory carvings pro- Mediterranean duced in the Mediterranean world – such as the well-known diptychs – could not be readily in- While the first truly exotic creatures which on corporated into the material culture of Barbarian the testimony of the written sources were dis- societies, the late antique and early medieval ivo- played in the Circus maximus of Rome were the ries were generally not particularly prized com- war elephants captured from Pyrrhus, ruler of modities in Barbarian societies.4 Epirus, in 275 BC,7 these enormous beasts re- The evidence presented here about the ivory mained a curiosity in the eyes of the Urbs’ popu- trade and the prices of the late antique and early lation, despite their more or less regular appear- medieval Mediterranean world is useful not only ance throughout the Republican and Imperial because it virtually precludes the possibility that period. Their size, their capture, and the costs of the Avar-period population or the population of their transportation,8 as well as the many diffi- the Langobardic and Gepidic polities of the Carpathian Basin would have had no access to 5 Cutler 1985a; Cutler 1987. larger amounts of ivories simply for chronologi- 6 One welcome exception is Jörg Drauschke’s study on the cal reasons. The data presented in the following Merovingian ivories from southern Germany, in which he also allow a rough assessment of the value of the discusses their value based on Cutler’s writings: Drauschke 2011b, 123–124. 2 Koncz–Bollók in press. 7 Jennison 1937, 44. 3 Cf. Bollók 2019. 8 For the organisation of how these animals were supplied, cf. 4 Koncz–Bollók in press. MacKinnon 2006.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 41 culties in taming and breeding them in captivity 2.1. The route of raw ivory to the Hellenistic and all bolstered the perception in the Roman world Roman Mediterranean markets 9 that they were creatures solely befitting rulers. 2.1.1. North-eastern Africa and western India However, this was not the case regarding their tusks, designated as elephant ivory.10 Access to On the testimony of the surviving written sourc- raw ivory within the confines of the Roman es, the Romans first encountered elephants in Empire – which first incorporated north-western Italy in the third century BC when they clashed Africa, then the greater part of the Mediterranean with the Epiran army.13 While it seems likely that Basin and finally its entirety – was ensured for the creatures in questions had been war ele- the greater portion of the wealthier population phants from India,14 a precise species identifica- by the first century AD. The symbolic start of tion is near-impossible because the written sourc- this process can be pinpointed to Lucius es tend to resort to a widespread literary topos Cornelius Scipio’s triumphal procession after his when contrasting Indian and African elephants,15 victory over the army of the Seleucid ruler without really bothering to make genuine dis- Antiochus III (r. 222–187 BC) at Magnesia ad tinctions between different – and some by now Sipylum in Lydia in 190 BC, when the people of already extinct – species. the Urbs could marvel at the enormous amounts A new phase in the military use of elephants of precious metal objects and coins – obviously was opened when, in order to replenish the taken from the vanquished king’s treasury11 – dwindling numbers of Indian war elephants alongside the 1231 elephant tusks.12 The symbol- reaching Egypt as part of booty in the time of ic end point is illustrated by the bracelets, hair- Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305–282 BC),16 both Ptolemy II pins, and dress pins that reached the empire’s Philadelphus (r. 285–282–246 BC) and his imme- more distant Western and Central European diate successors spared no effort to organise provinces, a reflection of how raw material re- hunting expeditions to Ethiopia and to put the sources became accessible even to simpler folks captured elephants to military use.17 The latter which did not enjoy a particularly wealthy sta- aspirations, as shown most acutely by the Battle tus by the Roman Imperial period. of Raphia in 217 BC, had but limited success.18 This situation – even if not self-evidently and With the passing of the time, elephants gradually not in each and every region – persisted until the disappeared from the battlefields of the existence of the largely unified empire, up to the Hellenistic world,19 even though their military close of the fourth century. One might rightly use did not cease altogether.20 claim that this changed from the early decades of The Ptolemies’ desire for elephants had two the fifth century, after Roman administration far-reaching consequences. Firstly, several settle- gradually ceased in the former Central and ments such as Berenike and Ptolemais Theron Western European provinces amidst the turmoils (modern ‘Aqiq in Sudan) (Fig. 1) were founded of the Migration period. In the wake of the Vandals’ conquest of North Africa, the Empire 13 Toynbee 1973, 33–34. was no longer able to directly control the routes 14 While a few genuine Syrian elephants – now extinct, western­ leading through north-western Africa. We would most occurence of Asian elephants – undoubtedly still roamed quite naturally expect that access to elephants the Near East and Iran in the third–second centuries BC, the Hellenistic and Roman sources tend to agree that the region’s and elephant ivory would have significantly de- Hellenistic rulers obtained their war elephants from India. Cf. clined or even ceased altogether. Yet, the material Strabo, Geographica XV.2.9(724) (Greek text and English record belies this assumption. In order to under- translation: Jones 1930, 142–143; Hungarian translation: Földy stand why the disintegration of the uniform po- 1977, 751), Polybius, Historiae XI.39.11–12 (Greek text and English translation: Paton 1925, 302–303). litical and economic framework provided by the 15 late Roman state did not usher in a decisive Bigwood 2007; Bannikov–Popov 2014. 16 Jennison 1937, 30–31; Toynbee 1973, 39, 347, note 4; Casson change in the late antique ivory trade, we must 1993, 247–248; Cobb 2016, 192. begin further afield. 17 Jennison 1937, 37–39; Casson 1993; Burstein 1996, 800–801, Bowersock 2013, 37; Cobb 2016. 18 Cf. Jennison 1937, 37–40. Some of his conclusions, such as his explanation of the size of the elephants in the Egyptian army 9 Jennison 1937, 93; Bomgardner 2001, 103, cf. also Opelt 1959, (cf. Casson 1989, 108; Casson 1993, 248; Cobb 2016, 198, note 1016–1019; Toynbee 1973, 39–46, 53. 31; Brandt et al. 2014) are no longer tenable. Cobb 2016, 10 For the terminology, cf. Koncz–Bollók in press. 197–200, 203–204. 11 Cf. Cutler 1987, 433. 19 Bugh 2013, 277–279, with a brief survey of the military uses 12 “…eburneos dentes mille ducentos triginta unum…”: Titus of elephants in the Hellenistic period; Cobb 2016, 198–200. Livius, Ab Urbe condita XXXIX.59.3, Latin text and English 20 Opelt 1959, 1003–1004, 1009–1010; Toynbee 1973, 37–38; translation: Sage 1984, 474–475. Rance 2003.

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Fig. 1. The main markets of elephant ivory in ancient and late antique Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade (map: Zsolt Réti) 1. kép. A vörös-tengeri és az indiai óceáni ókori és késő ókori elefántcsont-kereskedelem főbb állomásai (térkép: Réti Zsolt, BTK RI) with a view to creating the infrastructure neces- same time, the creation of the networks for cap- sary for the regular hunting expeditions organ- turing these animals brought a significant expan- ised to the regions south of Egypt for capturing sion in potential access to raw ivory. elephants, which in later centuries became im- Initially, the expeditions organised by the portant stations of the ivory trade as well as Egyptian rulers for procuring elephants and of the trade routes leading towards India.21 ivory led to a growth in the amount of tusks Secondly, it would appear that the growing de- available on the market, leading to a decrease in mand for elephants and ivory under the Ptolemies their price: by the mid-third century BC, the price led to a significant over-hunting. The first expe- of tusk dropped to about 1/15th of what it had ditions, mainly in Ptolemy II’s time, predomi- been a century earlier.24 The trade route leading nantly targeted the northern coast of the Red Sea north along the Nile from the heartland of Africa, lying closer to Egypt; under the reigns of his son the diplomatic relations with the southern peo- and his grandson, these expeditions ventured as ples, and Egyptian hunting expeditions all far as the northern Somalian coast (to the tip of played a prominent role among the sources of the Horn of Africa).22 In less than two to three elephant tusks.25 One indication of the immense decades, this process led to a significant deple- amounts of ivory reaching the north is Ptolemy II’s tion of the region’s elephant population.23 At the spectacular procession held in Alexandria after his Nubian campaign of 275 BC in which, in addition to the exotic beasts, the Ethiopian 21 Jennison 1937, 37; Casson 1993, 248–249; Davies 2013, 84–85; Cobb 2016, 195–196. For the network of the Roman-period “gift-bearers” bore six hundred tusks in the pro- ports of the Red Sea trade, cf. Sidebotham 2017. 22 Casson 1993, 249, note 6 (for the expeditions to the continent’s interior), 255–256; Bowersock 2013, 34–39; Cobb 2016, 195. 24 Tarn 1928, 258; Cutler 1987, 432; cf. also Burstein 1996, 803; 23 Casson 1993, 256; Burstein 1996; Török 2009, 385; Cobb 2016, Cobb 2016, 202. 201–204. 25 Burstein 1996, 804–806.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 43 cession.26 Simultaneously with the depletion of However, the genuine trade centre of the tusk the African sources, Indian ones gradually came of savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana to play an increasingly prominent role. It is diffi- Blumenbach, 1797) arriving from the Adulis cult to pinpoint an exact date – and in any case, area30 and from farther-lying regions, south of ivory does not figure prominently in the written the Nile, from the continent’s heartland, was sources with their laconic reports on the Indian Aksum in northern Ethiopia, lying a further five trade during the Ptolemaic period. days’ journey from Koloe, whence ivory was Not so the texts revealing details of the ivory transported to Adulis and sold to the merchants trade in the earlier Roman Imperial period. One arriving by sea.31 Ivory was also sold on the mar- of the most important among these, the Periplus kets of the Bāb al-Mandab, the strait between Maris Erythraei, written between 40 and 70 by an Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, where small Egyptian Greek merchant who was actively en- amounts of African goods could be acquired on gaged in the Indian trade, provides important the strait’s Arabian side, too.32 Small quantities details on the seaborne trade between north-east- could also be procured at the trading settlement ern Africa and India departing from the Red Sea of Mosyllon on the northern Somalian coast.33 ports of Egypt as well as on the major traits of the An outstandingly rich source was the Rhapta re- Indian regions involved in this trade. The text gion, corresponding to the Swahili coast north of dates from a relatively early phase of a signifi- Dār al-Salām in Tanzania (Fig. 2),34 although ac- cant period in Indian Ocean trade. Evidence for cording to the author, the quality of the ivory the trade between India and the communities of was inferior to the merchandise that was offered Mesopotamia, north-eastern Africa, and the on the Adulis markets (Eritrea and Ethiopia).35 Mediterranean is available by the second millen- Besides the African markets, the period’s other nium BC at the latest and Greek traders actively major source was the import of Indian ivory. partook in this trade from the second century BC According to the account of the Periplus, one onward. The Roman occupation of Egypt under lively market was to be found in the port of Augustus ushered in a new period in this trade, Barygaza (modern Bharuch) in north-western an expansion on a previously unprecedented India,36 and the other region offering substantial scale.27 quantities of tusks was hallmarked by Muziris The information contained in the Periplus (modern Kodungallur) and Nelkynda, the sub- paints a vivid and detailed picture of the peri- continent’s south-western ports (Fig. 1).37 od’s trade in elephant tusks (Fig. 1). The region At first glance, the conditions described in the closest to Egypt where ivory could be obtained Periplus by and large conform to what we would was Ptolemais Theron, although the author has- expect following our modern logic. However, tens to note that only small amounts could be ac- finer details are added to the overall picture by a quired there.28 Curiously enough, the town remark made by Pliny the Elder (d. 79), a con- founded sometime between 270 and 264 BC temporary of the Periplus’ author, that only from played a subordinate role in the ivory trade, de- India could one obtain sufficient quantities of spite its proximity to Egypt and despite it hav- ivory, while there was a perceptible shortage of ing been established with the express purpose of serving as a base for elephant hunting in the 30 29 The Eritrean elephant population was formerly identified as south. The first major trading post with abun- forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis Matschie, 1900); however, dant supplies of ivory was Koloe (modern more recent genetic analyses have demonstrated that it is Qohaito in Eritrea), lying three days’ journey in- related to savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana Blumenbach, land from Adulis, a town on the Eritrean coast. 1797) and not African forest elephants: Brandt et al. 2014. 31 Periplus Maris Erythraei 44–13, 64, Greek text and English translation: Casson 1989, 52–55. Cf. also Bowersock 2013, 31. 26 32 Athenaues Naucratita, Deipnosophistae V.201, Greek text and Periplus Maris Erythraei 718–21, Greek text and English English translation: Gulick 1928, 408–409. For the Nubian translation: Casson 1989, 54–55. 33 campaign and its historical context, cf. Török 2009, 384–390 Periplus Maris Erythraei 1012–13, Greek text and English (with further literature). translation: Casson 1989, 56–57. 27 Casson 1989, 11–12. 34 The region is alternately designated as Swahili coast and 28 Periplus Maris Erythraei 317, Greek text and English translation: Swahili corridor in the archaeological literature. 35 Casson 1989, 50–51. Periplus Maris Erythraei 165, 1718–19, Greek text and English 29 Strabo, Geographica XVI.4.7(770), Greek text and English translation: Casson 1989, 60–61; for the identification, cf. translation: Jones 1930, 318–319; Hungarian translation: ibid. 45. 36 Földy 1977, 793; cf. Casson 1989, 100–101. However, it could Periplus Maris Erythraei 4929, Greek text and English not truly fulfil this purpose over a longer period owing to the translation: Casson 1989, 80–81. 37 unfavourable conditions for the large ships suitable for Periplus Maris Erythraei 5624, Greek text and English transporting elephants: De Romanis 2020, 46. translation: Casson 1989, 85–86.

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Fig. 2. Places and regions mentioned in the present paper’s text in relation to the elephant ivory trade in eastern and north- western Africa (map: Zsolt Réti) 2. kép. A kelet- és az északnyugat-afrikai elefántcsont-kereskedelemmel kapcsolatban a tanulmány szövegében szereplő helyek és térségek (térkép: Réti Zsolt, BTK RI) this commodity in other parts of the then known African ivory in the first century,39 even if no world (in this case, specifically in Africa).38 His far-reaching conclusions can be drawn regard- remark is underpinned by the Periplus’ recurring ing its amount. Even less meaningful insight is assertion that only small quantities of tusk were provided by cases such as the one recorded by offered in various north-eastern African regions. Philostratus the Younger about the sophist Although written in the third century, there is Proclus, born in Naucratis but living in Athens. one reference to the availability of eastern The passage in question mentions that Proclus

38 Plinius Maior, Naturalis historia VIII.4.7–8, Latin text and 39 Flavius Philostratus, Vita Apollonii VI.2, Greek text and English translation: Rackham 1967, 6–7. English translation: Conybeare 1921, 4–7.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 45 sold ivory and other exotic goods he received western Africa (modern Mali, Burkina Faso, from Egypt on the Athenian market,40 although Guinea, and the Ivory Coast) cannot be theoreti- this should not necessarily be taken to imply cally excluded from among the potential sources that the ivory in question originated from Africa, of ivory.47 The region’s goldmines played a given that the overwhelming portion of Indian prominent role in the economy of the North ivory reached the markets of the Roman world African Arab states and it has been suggested through Egypt. that in the earlier tenth century, before Egypt came under Fatimid rule, the demand for ivory 2.1.2. Western Africa in the Fatimid Caliphate – then extending no far- When interpreting Pliny’s remark, it should be ther than the Maghreb – was met by these borne in mind that elephant herds were also to routes.48 However, next to nothing is known be found in regions other than eastern Africa about their role in the preceding periods. during the Roman period. In addition to the Although gold from the western African mines Indian and Egyptian sources of ivory, Juvenal (d. presumably reached Carthage through seaborne ca. 130) was also familiar with the trade in ivory trade, while the initial establishment of trade re- conducted through the merchants of the Maghreb lations can perhaps be linked to Hanno’s journey in the early decades of the second century,41 and in the fifth century BC,49 nothing more is heard of the archaeological record too attests to the them after the Roman conquest. The single, north-western African ivory trade.42 One indica- albeit rather dubious source mentioning the re- tion that this region did not merely participate in gion’s elephants is Lucian (d. ca. 180), who men- the trade in tusks as one of the stations along the tions that the Garamantes, who maintained close transit route from the east is a passage in a relations with the Romans and controlled Saharan speech delivered by Themistius (ca. 317–ca. 388), trade,50 would set off on hunting expeditions to the famed orator, in the presence of the Emperor the south during winter and that their prey in- Valens (r. 364–378) in the Constantinopolitan cluded elephants.51 The second-century Janus senate in 370, in which he mentions that Libyan statuette from Zangon Dan Makéri in southern elephants are in danger of being wiped out com- Nigeria and coins minted in 58 BC in Gaul found pletely,43 no doubt owing to over-hunting. in Rasseremt in Mauritania attest to possible con- Earlier scholarship believed that a remark by tacts. However, their archaeological value is very John of Biclaro, a Visigoth studying in Con­ limited owing to their uncertain find circum- stantinople in the 560s–570s, referred to the ele- stances.52 More reliable pointers are offered by phant population of this region.44 He mentions recent excavations, particularly at the Kissi site in that the gifts borne by a delegation of the Burkina Faso (Fig. 2), whose finds, especially the Macurrae, identified with a population living glass beads recovered from the burials, suggest in Mauritania Caesarensis, appearing before that this region had already maintained contact Justin II (r. 565–574) included elephant tusks.45 with the Mediterranean world as early as the However, it has more recently been proposed mid-first millennium.53 In the light of the above, that the Macurrae, who had converted to we can hardly assume intense direct contacts that Christianity, should in fact be identified with would have been suitable for the supply of larger one of the population groups of Nubia.46 Although neither the late antique, nor the 47 One of the few known ivory caches dating from the first mil- early medieval sources make any mention of lennium was discovered in Mali. Tentatively assigned to the this, the trans-Saharan trade routes leading to tenth century, the cache also contained fifty-three hippo­ potamus tusks. Although an interpretation as a ritual deposit has been suggested, it seems more likely that it was a 40 Flavius Philostratus, Vitae Sophistarum II.21, Greek text and shipment of ivory that had been buried: Insoll 1995. English translation: Wright 1922, 260–261. 48 Guérin 2013. 41 Iuvenalis, Saturae XI.123–127, Latin text and English 49 Law 1967, 188. translation: Ramsay 1928, 228–231. For its interpretation, cf. 50 For the west African connections of the Garamantes, cf. Law Cutler 1987, 441. 1967, 196–198; Liverani 2000. 42 Cutler 1987, 441. 51 Lucianus Samosatensis, De dipsadibus 2, Greek text and 43 Themistius, Oratio 10, English translation: Heather– English translation: Kilburn 1959, 76–77. Matthews 1991, 44. 52 The finds in question were not recovered from sealed 44 Cutler 1985a; Cutler 1987, 442. contexts and thus there is no way of knowing whether they 45 Iohannes Biclarensis, Chronica 28, s.a. 573(6), Latin text: had reached western Africa around the time they were made, Mommsen 1894, 213, English translation: Wolf 2011, 56; or perhaps such later, during the period characterised by the Hungarian Translation: Horváth 2008, 120. Arab conquest and dynamic connections, cf. Magnavita 46 Cf. Gatier 1996, 921; Phillipson 2009, 358; Nechaeva 2014, 2013, 4. 201. 53 Magnavita 2009, 91–92.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 46 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ quantities of ivory between western Africa and mina equalled 1/60th of a Roman talent, reckon- the Mediterranean in the early medieval period ing with the value of 95 Roman pounds to the tal- before the tenth century.54 ent as specified in the papyrus would imply that the price of 70 drachmae meant roughly half a 2.2. The price of ivory in the second–fourth centuries kilogram (0.5111 kg) of trimmed tusks. Knowing that one Egyptian drachma was the equivalent of While the Periplus offers but indirect data on the 1/100 of a Roman aureus and 1/4 of a Roman volume of the Indian ivory trade, a text dating denarius, a trimmed tusk weighing 1 kg was val- from roughly a century later, from the mid- ued at roughly 35 silver denarii or 1.4 aurei when second century, provides a far more accurate calculating the import duty. The same values for picture in this respect. The text in question, 1 kg of complete ivory were slightly higher: known as the Muziris Papyrus (P. Vindob G 50 denarii or 2 aurei.59 Since the papyrus specifies 40822), has survived in a slightly fragmentary both the number of pieces and the overall weight condition. Its recto contains the details of a of complete tusks, it can be easily calculated that contract in which one partner undertakes to the average weight of the tusks in this mid-sec- transport the goods arriving from India through ond century cargo was roughly 19.3 kg and that a Red Sea port to Alexandria and stipulates the their value was around 38.6 aurei. Regrettably, repayment of a loan contracted in India and the while the number of trimmed tusks was not re- details of the sanctions in the event of default.55 corded, the current Indian trimming practice The verso is a list of the commodities shipped to would suggest that their weight ranged between Egypt from India. In addition to being an itemised 1 and 7 kg,60 while their value between 1.4 and list of all the goods, to the great fortune of mo- 9.8 aurei. dern scholarship, the quantity of each ware in the Obviously, the above values provide no more cargo and their exact value are also recorded, the than broad information on the prices asked for latter no doubt to facilitate the payment of the ivory on the empire’s more distant markets after import duty in kind. The list features the typical the fairly high import duty had been paid. The products of India: pepper and eastern plants next piece of information offering some idea of sought for their valuable oil such as nard the price of ivory comes from the onset of the (Nardostachys jatamansi) and malabathron fourth century. Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum (Cinnamomum malabatrum) as well as tortoiseshell Prices also covers ivory, fixing the price of this and ivory.56 commodity at 150 denarii per Roman pound.61 Accounting for ca. 1% of the cargo, ivory ap- Regrettably enough, the interpretation of this pears as two separate entries according to the piece of information is not as straightforward as most convincing reconstruction.57 The list speci- it might appear because neither denarii, nor aurei, fies 167 “sound”, i.e. complete tusks weighing both general measures of value in the edict, were 3228.5 kg and ivory in the form of schidai (σχίδαι), part of regular day to day circulation. What interpreted as trimmed tusks, which weighed seems quite certain is that reckoning with an roughly 538.5 kg.58 Complete tusks were valued equivalent of 322.8 g to a Roman pound, the at 100 Egyptian drachmae per mina, the latter at maximum price of ivory per kilogram was 70 drachmae per mina. Given that the Egyptian roughly 465 denarii. The relation between the de- narius and the aureus remains controversial, with denarii au- 54 Law 1967, 190–196; Magnavita 2009, 95–96; Magnavita 2013, estimates of 1200, 1500 and 2000 to the 62 8. reus. Although Diocletian’s aurei, struck at 60 to 55 The text’s first edition and German translation: Harrauer– the pound and weighing 5.3 to 5.5 g,63 were Sijpesteijn 1985, 130–134. Emended versions of the text much lighter than the aurei of the mid-second appeared regularly after the first publication, which usually century with their weight of roughly 7.3 g,64 also proposed a new translation and interpretation: Casson 1986, 74–76; Thür 1987, 230–233; Casson 1990, 196–200; De the change is striking, to say the least. If we take Romanis 2012, 99–100; De Romanis 2020, 14–29. For Muziris as our staring point the value of 1500 to 2000 and its role in the period’s trade as well as for the sources of the ivory traded from here, cf. Chakravarti 2017, esp. 330. 56 For the reconstruction of the cargo, cf. De Romanis 2012. 59 We used the table in De Romanis 2012, 101, for our 57 De Romanis 2014, 2–18; De Romanis 2017, both with an calculations. overview of earlier interpretations and his own new 60 De Romanis 2014, 28. reconstruction based on D. Rathbone’s earlier arguments. We 61 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 16.6a: {d}eboris libra I follow his reconstruction in the present study. (denariis) CL, ed. Lauffer 1971, 148. 58 For the weight data and the interpretation of σχίδαι as chunks 62 For a recent overview, cf. Posner 2015. of ivory removed by trimming contra the previously proposed 63 Posner 2015, 7. interpretations, cf. De Romanis 2014; De Romanis 2017. 64 Duncan-Jones 1994, 216, Tab. 15.2.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 47 denarii to the aureus, regarded more realistic in kg).69 In contrast, the edict of 301 maximised the recent scholarship, the maximum price in 301 price as 800 denarii per Roman pound.70 Thus, was 0.31 to 0.23 aurei: assuming coins with a while in the mid-second century the price of weight of 5.5 g, this would be the equivalent of trimmed tusk was 11.66-fold higher and that of 1.7 or 1.27 g of gold. Assuming 1200 denarii to the complete tusk 16.66-fold higher than pepper, this aureus, the same figures would be 0.39 aurei and was no longer the case by the early fourth centu- 2.145 g of gold. The same result is received if we ry when pepper could be offered at a price 5.33 take the price of gold as fixed in the edict. times higher than ivory. Counting with a Roman pound of 322.8 g or Several factors influenced the changes briefly 327.45 g,65 1 g of gold could be sold for 223 outlined in the above. Among these, the reorgan- denarii in the case of the former and 220 denarii isation of Indian Ocean trade in the early third in the case of the latter,66 meaning that ivory val- century71 played an at least as pronounced a role ued at 465 denarii per kilogram would equal as the availability of increasingly higher quanti- roughly 2.08 g or 2.11 g of gold (a figure quite ties of African ivory. The quantity of ivory at the close to the value calculated with the 1200 time the Muziris Papyrus was drawn up is illus- denarii to the aureus67). The same figures at the trated by the fact that the overall volume of the time the Muziris Papyrus was drawn up were commodities transported by a single ship with a 10.22 g of gold for trimmed and 14.6 g of gold for significant tonnage was roughly 625 tons, of complete tusks. which pepper accounted for some 87% (544 The relatively low maximised price of ivory is tons).72 The value of the entire cargo – after the perhaps even better illustrated by that the asking import duty had been paid – was 7 million price of 465 denarii for 1 kg of tusk was the equiv- Egyptian drachmae or 70,000 Roman aurei, the alent of the cost of 18.75 kg beef or goat meat, equivalent of over 23,000 tons of grain. The latter 12.5 kg pork or 465 eggs.68 In other words, a large was about 1% of the total yield of productive ar- tusk of the kind listed in the Muziris Papyrus able land in Egypt.73 Obviously, we know next to could be purchased for the price of beef from one nothing about how many ships of the same type or two cattle. The main problem with the price as the Hermapollon plied the Indian Ocean annu- edict as a source stems from the fact that it was ally. Writing in the 20s BC, Strabo knew of 120 issued in support of state procurements and was ships engaged in the Indian trade,74 albeit these intended to curb inflation, meaning that some- were smaller vessels than the Hermapollon.75 The times much higher prices were probably asked volume of trade as recorded in the Muziris for various commodities under market condi- Papyrus had declined significantly by the third tions than what was fixed in the edict. Yet, the century, to which one contributing factor was comparison with daily groceries illustrates that that from the second century onward, the main the price of ivory at the very beginning of the markets of the southern Indian pepper trade fourth century was much lower than what we gradually shifted eastward, towards the Bay of would have expected and that ivory was far less Bengal, doubtless intensified by the diminishing expensive than it was in the mid-second century. demand for Indian commodities during the The change in prices is reflected by other mer- third-century crisis in the Roman Empire,76 chandise, too. For example, on the testimony of which in turn had a direct impact on imports of the Muziris Papyrus, pepper imported from Indian ivory, which on the testimony of the India was even cheaper than ivory, costing 6 Muziris Papyrus accounted for a very small por- Egyptian drachmae per mina (reckoning with 0.53 tion and overall value of the commodities im- ported from India.

65 Lauffer 1971, 54. 66 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 31,1a–2: [aur]i obruzae in 69 De Romanis 2012, 88, 101. regulis sive [in] solidis (libra) I (denariis) LXXII[= 72.000], 70 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 36,114: Piperis libra I [au]ri neti (libra) I (denariis) LXXII[= 72.000], ed. Crawford– (denariis) DCCC (ed. Lauffer 1971, 199, cf. Crawford– Reynolds 1979, 176 (= 28.1a–2); the strongly fragmented Reynolds 1979, 207) = 34,67 (ed. Crawford–Reynolds 1979, Greek variant with an identical content: ed. Lauffer 1971, 183). 191. 71 De Romanis 2012, 75. 67 The passage on the price of gold is the principal argument of 72 De Romanis 2012, 89. the proponents of calculations based on the equation of the 73 Gibbs 2012, 48. aureus with 1200 denarii. 74 Strabon, Geographica II.5.12(117), Greek text and English 68 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 4.1a: carnis{s} porcinae Ital. translation: Jones 1917, 454–455; Hungarian translation: po. I (denariis) XII, 4.2: carnis bubulae Ital. po. I (denariis) Földy 1977, 152. VIII, 4.3: carnis caprinae sibe verbecinae Ital. po. I (denariis) 75 De Romanis 2020, 318–319. VIII, 6.43: ova n. IV (denariis) IV, ed. Lauffer 1971, 104, 112. 76 De Romanis 2020, 121–124.

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2.3. The sources of ivory in Late Antiquity accumulated ivory and various other objects identified as commodities of the Indian Ocean 2.3.1. Eastern Africa and India trade such as glass beads and pottery brought to light on the sites would imply that the region had The trajectory spanning half a millennium out- partook in long-distance trade well before the lined by the data from the Ptolemaic period, the tenth century, in all likelihood as the supplier of Periplus Maris Erythraei, Pliny, the Muziris the Swahili coast.82 In the lack of any data, there is Papyrus, and Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum no way of knowing to what extent this supply or Prices issued in 301 would suggest that the two to possibly even more distant sources contributed to two and a half centuries during which affordable the relative abundance of ivory in Late Antiquity Indian ivory was intensely imported provided or to what extent it drew from the replenished sufficient time for the regeneration and renewed stock of the Ethiopian elephant population. growth of the north-eastern African elephant What we do know is that in the mid-fourth population that had been over-hunted during the century, the Expositio totius mundi et gentium re- Hellenistic period. The direct trade connections ports that India minor “is teemed with elephants”. established with the more southerly regions of The context clearly reveals that the toponym des- eastern Africa extending to the Tanzanian coast ignates north-eastern Africa. The anonymous au- likewise contributed to the replenishment of thor also notes that ivory from this region reached these herds. As we have seen in the above, the not only the Roman world, but also Sasanian northern part of the Swahili coast, stretching Persia.83 Given the distinctiveness of its imagery, from the southern coast of Somalia to Mozam­ it is perhaps more than simply a visual conven- bique, appears in the Periplus as Rhapta (desig- tion that on one of the Piazza Armerina mosaics, nating the zone to the Dār al-Salām region: made slightly earlier, in the 320s–330s, most like- Fig. 2);77 the same region – or its northern part – is ly by a north-western African workshop, the per- called Zingion by Cosmas Indicopleustes.78 From sonification of Africa holds an elephant tusk in the tenth century onward, this region became – one hand and is flanked by an elephant and a through Egyptian mediation – the major, if not phoenix on one side and a tiger and another tusk the most important source of ivory of the on the other (Fig. 3).84 In the earlier fifth century, Mediterranean and Arab world,79 and it also Philostorgius declared that the high number of maintained lively connections with India. While elephants was one of most striking natural re- the role played by this region in the ivory trade sources of Aksum and its broader region, which prior to the tenth century is known from the cited was of importance to the Mediterranean world written sources, the archaeological record pro- too.85 Writing in the mid-sixth century in vides but indirect evidence. Although ivory de- Alexandria, Constantine of Antiochia, better posits are few and far between in the hinterland known as Cosmas Indicopleustes in later manu- of the Swahili coast in the first millennium,80 sev- scripts, who had personally visited Adulis and eral have been reported from the eastern coast of Aksum in the 520s,86 was aware that ivory from the Republic of South Africa. Three sites in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (Fig. 2) yielded im- pressive quantities of unworked and partially 82 Coutu et al. 2016, 20–22. 83 Expositio totius mundi et gentium 18, Latin text and French worked ivory, whose examination – principally ougé 87 86 translation: R 1966, 152–153; Latin text and English by Sr/ Sr analyses – indicated that it originat- translation: Woodman 1964, 4, 28; Hungarian translation: ed from the broader region (and not solely from Braun–Ferenczi–Grüll 2012, 88. For the dating of the text, cf. the sites’ immediate area), attesting to the exten- Grüll 2012, 85. For the usage of the term “India” in the late sive and well-organised collection of ivory.81 The antique sources, cf. also Gatier 1996, 903; Power 2012, 69; Bowersock 2013, 23. 84 Carandini–Ricci–de Vos 1982, 229, Fig. 131, Pl. XXXI.60. For 77 See notes 34–35. the uniqueness of the depiction and that the master making 78 Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographia christiana II.30, Greek the mosaic did not draw his inspiration from the natural text and French translation: Wolska-Conus 1968, 334–335; reality, despite the mosaic having been made by an African English translation: McCrindle 22010, 38. workshop, cf. Cutler 1985b, 128. The image is regarded as a 79 Horton 1987; Horton 2018. Chronologically, this coincides personification of India by Carandini–Ricci–de Vos 1982, with the abandonment of the Norse settlements in Greenland, 230; in contrast, Toynbee 1973, 29, 50, makes a case for the which some scholars explain by the dramatic drop in the more generally accepted personification of Africa. For price of ivory (for a comprehensive discussion, cf. Seaver elephant portrayals symbolising Africa, cf. Toynbee 1973, 2009). 50–52. 80 The Limpopo valley was an important source of ivory on the 85 Philostorgius, Historia ecclesiastica III.6, English translation: Swahili coast: Hanisch 1981. Amidon 2007, 43. 81 Coutu et al. 2016, 19–20. 86 Cf. Bowersock 2013, 25, 133.

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Fig. 3. Personification of Africa on the Great Hunt mosaic floor in Piazza Armerina (Province of Enna, Sicily) (after Carandini–Ricci–de Vos 1982, Pl. XXXI.60) 3. kép. Afrika perszonifikációja a Piazza Armerina-i Nagy Vadászat mozaikon (Provincia di Enna, Szicília) (Carandini–Ricci–de Vos 1982, Pl. XXXI.60. nyomán)

Aethopia had reached not only the East Roman gation in question had indeed arrived from lands and Persia, but that tusks also made their Nubia.89 way to India and the Ḥimyarite Kingdom in Yet, the narrative contained in the Christian to- Yemen. While his testimony confirms that simi- pography that African ivory was exported to India larly to the earlier centuries, Indian rulers had should not necessarily be taken to imply that their own elephant herds, it would nevertheless trade in the opposite direction had ceased alto- seem that the main direction of ivory trade had gether. While there is no written source to con- shifted to some extent as compared to the first clusively confirm this, a few scattered references centuries of the Roman Imperial period.87 The re- to this effect are known from the period. Gregory mark on the abundant elephant population of of Nyssa speaks of the import of Indian ivory as north-eastern Africa in the Christian topography is one of the self-evident facts of life in the later borne out by Nonnosus, a contemporary, who fourth century,90 and a controversial reference in travelled to Ethiopia, Ḥimyar, and the land of the one of Claudian’s poems written in the early fifth Saracens as an envoy of Justinian I (r. 527–565). century can be interpreted in the same vein.91 Of his journey in Ethiopia, he recorded that he Obviously, these references do not betoken any had seen some 5000 elephants grazing near Ave, measure of certainty, as neither does a diptych of lying between Adulis and Aksum, whose dis- Justinian I made in the 530s, whose lower regis- tance, in contrast to the Periplus, he specifies as a ter shows a man holding an ivory tusk standing fifteen days’ journey.88 The region’s prominent beside an elephant in front of the emperor, who, role is also underscored by John of Biclaro’s nar- as it has been suggested by some scholars, possi- rative about the gift of elephant tusks presented bly portrays an Indian on the strength of his at- to Justin II by the Macurritae, insofar as the dele- tire.92 Aside from the differences in the price and quality of ivory from different regions, natural 87 Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographia christiana XI.22–23, Greek and cultural factors can also be assumed in the text and French translation: Wolska-Conus 1973, 352–355; maintenance of a two-way traffic in the ivory English translation: McCrindle 2010, 371–372. For an overview of the relevant scholarly literature on the author, the text’s date, and Book XI, probably added at a later date, 89 See above, p. 45. cf. Bollók 2013, 148. 90 Gregorius Nyssenus, Homilia 3 in Ecclesiasten, English 88 Photius, Bibliotheca 3, Greek text and French translation: translation: Hall–Moriarty 1993, 66. Henry 1959, 6; English translation: Freese 1920, 19. Nonnosus’ 91 See below, pp. 51–52. lost work is only known from Photius’ summary. 92 Delbrueck 1929, 192–193; Kollwitz 1959, 1117.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 50 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ trade. One of these is that among African ele- population only became extinct later, probably in phant species, both males and females have the sixth or seventh century.98 Nothing certain is tusks, while only males in Indian elephant popu- known about the numbers of tusks appearing on lations, and thus an African population of the the markets during the last centuries, and neither same size would, at least theoretically, mean do we have reliable data on the trade routes lead- twice as many tusks. However, it should also be ing north from the western African sub-Saharan borne in mind that significant numbers of ele- region during the period discussed here.99 phants were kept as domestic animals in India, a practice that is not, or only truly exceptionally, 2.4. Transportation of elephants as live animals attested in the African regions representing the in the late antique east and west elephants’ natural habitats in Antiquity,93 and that the tusks of domestic elephants were regu- While the first elephants arriving to Italy in the larly trimmed every few years by sawing off the third century BC were exploited for military pur- lower third.94 While this meant a regular supply poses, they were later transported to Rome to be of smaller chunks of tusks, the overall proportion displayed during various games. A profound of complete, intact tusks from India was much change can be noted during the last century of smaller than from Africa. The differences in qual- the undivided Roman Empire; by the fifth centu- ity between the ivory originating from different ry, we witness the disappearance of the elephants regions are mentioned in several passages of the captured in Africa and then transported to Italy Periplus. Finally, prices as well as the proportion as live animals. One of the authors of the Historia of exports and imports could equally well have Augusta, a source of dubious reliability, reports been shaped by state regulations. Regarding con- that thirty-two elephants were paraded during ditions in the Roman Imperial period, we know the games held in the mid-third century, on the that there was a substantial flow of gold from occasion of the one thousandth anniversary of Rome to India owing to the latter’s export sur- the foundation of Rome, most of which were part plus and it is therefore less than surprising that of the booty from the successful Persian cam- despite the hefty revenues from import duties, paign of Gordian III (r. 238–344).100 The same the Roman administration was less than happy source records that twenty elephants appeared in with the enormous demand for Indian luxury the procession celebrating the victory won by commodities.95 No matter how large a portion Aurelian (r. 270–275) over Palmyra in 274.101 In ivory from India accounted for on the markets of addition to the above, Sicilian floor mosaics from the Roman world after the third century, we have the earlier fourth century depict scenes showing no reason to doubt the primacy of African sourc- how elephants were captured and transported es in Late Antiquity in the light of the available over the sea, the most renowned among these sources, even if neither the differences in the undoubtedly being the Great Hunt mosaic of the traits of raw ivory once processed and worked,96 Piazza Armerina villa (Fig. 4).102 nor the suggestions based on the size of ivory ob- The letters written by Symmachus,103 head of jects97 provide any secure pointers for distin- an extremely wealthy and influential aristocratic guishing between the two sources. Thus, any family with large estates in several of the em- conclusive evidence in this respect can only be pire’s provinces provide ample evidence that he expected from archaeometric analyses. was able to procure exotic African beasts for the games celebrating his son’s questorship in 393 2.3.2. North-western Africa and his praetorship in 401. His surviving corre- In contrast to eastern African elephants and spondence, in part conducted with African offi- ivory, western Africa is last mentioned in cials for seeking out and acquiring the animals, Themistius’ speech delivered in Constantinople mentions lions, leopardi (most likely maneless in 370. Nevertheless, there is a general consensus lions), antelopes, and crocodiles. While the latter in the period’s scholarship that this elephant quite certainly refers to creatures from the Nile

93 Casson 1993, 249; Cobb 2016, 203. 98 Zeuner 1963; Cutler 1987, 442. 94 De Romanis 2014, 14–18. 99 Cf. pp. 45–46. 95 Casson 1989, 17. 100 Historia Augusta, Gordiani Tres 33.1–3, Latin text and English 96 Cf. Cutler 1987, 438; von Bargen 1994, 55–56. translation: Magie 1993, 442–445. Cf. Jennison 1937, 92. 97 Cutler 1985a, 27–29; the rule of thumb introduced by Cutler 101 Historia Augusta, Divus Aurelianus 33.4, Latin text and English 1993, 8, that ivory objects suggesting a tusk diameter translation: Magie 1998, 258–259. exceeding 11 cm were made from African elephant tusk can 102 Carandini–Ricci–de Vos 1982, 219, Fig. 123, Pl. XXIX. 58. be rejected in the light of the dimensions of the Indian tusks 103 For a vivid portrait of the man and his estates, cf. Brown of the pre-Modern Age, cf. von Bargen 1994, 56–57. 2012, 16–17,93–119.

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Fig. 4. Captive elephant on the Great Hunt mosaic floor in Piazza Armerina (Province of Enna, Sicily) (photo: Ádám Bollók) 4. kép. Elfogott elefánt a Piazza Armerina-i Nagy Vadászat mozaikon (Provincia di Enna, Szicília) (fotó: Bollók Ádám)

Valley, i.e. north-eastern Africa, the former could name in shining gold, should pass in equally well be procured from Egypt or the procession among lords and commons. All Maghreb, while a Mesopotamian origin cannot India stood in speechless amaze to see many be rejected out of hand in the case of lions.104 an elephant go shorn of the glory of his Elephants were an entirely different case: not tusks. Seated upon their black necks despite even an aristocrat as wealthy and as high-rank- their cries the goddess shook the fix fed ing as Symmachus attempted to have them ivory and tearing it up from its bloody roots brought to Rome. Whether this can be ascribed disarmed the monstrous mouths. Nay, she to the tradition that these noble beasts were im- fain would have brought the elephants perial prerogatives or merely that their acquisi- themselves as a spectacle but feared that tion was too costly and a highly uncertain en- their vast weight would retard the ship.105 deavour remains unknown. Yet, there is an oblique reference that the idea One curious aspect of this passage is that it of transporting a few elephants to Italy had per- speaks not only of the genuine option of trans- haps been entertained in the emperor’s entou- porting live animals at the onset of the fifth cen- rage at this time. Claudian’s panegyric to Flavius tury, but also of the potential availability of Stilicho (ca. 359–408) serving as magister militum Indian in addition to African ivory in Italy. It is a under Honorius (r. 393–395–423) seems to sug- thornier issue whether Claudian’s cited passage gest that elephants had been included on the list merely implies that the existence of two different of animals to be brought to Italy for the venatio sources was still common knowledge in Italy at staged as part of Stilicho’s consular games in 400, this time, irrespective of the source of the tusks although, in the end, he was content with procur- in question, or whether it should be taken at face ing tusks. After describing the animals arriving value to denote genuine Indian imports. Adding from Africa, Claudian continues as follows: to the confusion is that as we have seen in the foregoing in relation to the Expositio totius mundi Then Latonia collected grey-spotted leopards and other marvels of the south and huge ivory tusks which, carved with iron into 105 Claudius Claudianus, De Consulatu Stilichonis III.345–355, plaques and inscribed with the consul’s Latin text and English translation (slightly modified after Cameron 2013, 205): Platnauer 1998, 66–67; Hungarian 104 Jennison 1937, 95–97. translation: Mezei 1988, 108.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 52 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ et gentium, the term India or India minor was also Hippodrome.111 A reference to the marine trans- used to denote eastern Africa and the Red Sea portation of elephants from north-eastern Africa region from the fourth century onward.106 We can be found in the Elephant Sura of the Qu’ran, should also bear in mind that the choice of suit- commemorating the elephant participating in the able words for the metre was at least as impor- campaign against Mecca led by Abraha, the tant as geographical accuracy to the author who Christian ruler of Ḥimyar.112 Given that Abraha, had couched his poem in a mythological narra- a former confidante of the monarch of Aksum tive.107 conquering Ḥimyar, had imposed his control In any case, nothing more is said about the dis- over the south-westerly region of the Arabian play of live elephants at venationes in Italy during Peninsula, his elephant had no doubt reached later periods. The fifth century did not mark a Arabia from Ethiopia. similar break in the transportation of these large Another typical source of these beasts can be beasts in the eastern empire and it might there- presumed from John of Ephesus’ account of the fore be instructive to briefly review the available events of the later sixth century, among which he information before discussing at greater length a mentions that elephants, part of the spoils cap- reference in Claudian’s poem that has some rele- tured from the Sasanian army, were taken to vance for the ivory objects of both regions. Constantinople. These were Indian elephants Of the sources relating to the easterly regions, kept in captivity that could be trained for certain mention must first be made of Timotheus of tasks, as shown by the story about them. It so Gaza’s book from the sixth century, in which he happened that their new masters taught them to mentions a man dealing in “Indian” wares trav- make the sign of the cross with their trunk when- elling northward from Aila (modern Eilat, Israel, ever they passed a church and to bow down in and Aqaba, Jordan), who was seen passing front of the emperor and make the sign of the through Gaza with two giraffes and an elephant, cross when they were paraded in the Hippodrome creatures he was taking to the court of Anastasius before horse races.113 The capture of these ele- (r. 491–518) in Constantinople to be shown at the phants can be linked to the Armenian campaign games held in the capital.108 The event in ques- of Ḫusraw Anūsīrvān I (r. 531–579) in 576, and tion was probably identical with the one record- thus John of Ephesus’s narrative can be dated to ed for the year 496 by Marcellinus (d. ca. 534) in the 570s–580s, to the reigns of Tiberius II (r. 574– his chronicle, in which he mentions an elephant 578–582) and Maurice (r. 582–602).114 Fame of the and two giraffes sent to the emperor from India.109 imperial city’s elephants spread to distant lands: If for nothing else, the giraffes should certainly Gregory of Tours heard about them in the west,115 be suspect that the source of this particular gift and Theophylact Simocatta recorded that in the was India minor rather than the subcontinent.110 last year of Tiberius II’s reign, the Avar khagan Half a century later, a delegation from north-east- demanded that the emperor send him one of his ern Africa – again designated as “Indians” in the elephants. The request was fulfilled by Maurice, sources – sent to Justinian I presented the emper- the new emperor, but the khagan, displeased or with an elephant, which was shown off to the with the “gift”, sent the animal back to Con­ city’s population during the games held in the stantinople.116

106 See. note 83, and cf. also Cutler 1987, 440. 107 Cutler 1985a, 22; Cutler 1987, 438. 108 Timotheus Gazaeus, De animalibus 24, Greek text and English 111 Malalas, Chronographia XVIII.106 (549/550 AD), English translation: Haupt 1869, 15; Bodenheimer–Rabinowitz 1949, translation: Jeffreys–Jeffreys–Scott 1986, 289; Theophanes, 31. Chronographia s.a. 6042AM = 549/550 AD, English translation: 109 Marcellinus Comes, Chronica [s.a 496] 2, Latin text and Mango–Scott 1997, 331. English translation: Croke 1995, 31–32; Brown 2018, 96, 112 Quran 105, for the historical context, cf. Bowersock 2013, argued that the giraffes brought to Constantinople by the 116–117. African envoy were taken to the imperial animal park. 113 Iohannes Ephesinus, Historia ecclesiastica II.48, English Although our sources clearly state that the elephant brought translation of the Syriac text: Smith 1860, 161–163. by the delegation to the city in 549/550 was displayed in the 114 For the dating of the events, their contexts, and the relevant Hippodrome, this does not in itself imply that the animal had sources, cf. Rance 2003, 371, esp. note 79. not been subsequently taken to the animal park, since by this 115 Gregorius Tourensis, Historia Francorum V.30, English time, these truly rare creatures would only have been killed translation: Thorpe 1974; Hungarian translation: Mezei– during games on very special occasions (cf. the literature Adamik 2010, 355. cited in note 111), as was the practice in late Republican and 116 Theophylactus Simocatta, Historiae I.3.8–10, English Imperial Rome. translation: Whitby–Whitby 1986, 24; Hungarian translation: 110 Cf. Gatier 1996, esp. 919–920. Olajos 2012, 77.

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Fig. 5. Elephant depiction on the mosaic floor of the “Birds Mosaic Mansion” in Caesarea Maritima (Israel) (photo: Ádám Bollók) 5. kép. Elefántábrázolás a Caesarea Maritima-i „Birds Mosaic Mansion” mozaikpadlóján (Izrael) (fotó: Bollók Ádám)

The sources briefly reviewed in the above are The best known among them is the white ele- unsuitable for drawing any far-reaching conclu- phant by the name of Abū al-‘Abbās – transliter- sions – they merely indicate that the emperors of ated as Abul Abaz in Latin120 – sent by the Constantinople were still able to procure ele- Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rašīd (r. 786–809) to phants in the fifth and sixth centuries. These in- Charlemagne (r. 768–800–814). Quite under- cluded both Indian elephants captured during standably, this diplomatic gift, laden with sym- the wars fought with the Sasanians who used bolic meaning in the eastern tradition, could only them when they besieged fortified towns and for be conceived on the highest diplomatic level be- logistic purposes,117 and African ones through tween the period’s most powerful sovereigns.121 the diplomatic and commercial connections Accordingly, elephants were acquired by the rul- maintained with the north-eastern African re- ers of Constantinople on rare occasions only dur- gion. Although our sources contain few detils, ing the Middle Byzantine period, while they the former was possibly less frequent. The ele- could be seen more regularly in the courts of phant bones bearing signs of violent death Muslim caliphs, especially in the more easterly brought to light during the metro excavations in regions.122 Istanbul118 can perhaps be taken as an indication that this noble beast had appeared in one or an- 2.5. The price of ivory from the later fourth other venatio held in the city, but reveal nothing to the mid-sixth century about how frequent this might have been. The mosaics bearing various elephant depictions Following the above brief discussion illuminat- known from the eastern provinces hardly attest ing the background to the gradual decline in the to a personal familiarity with what this animal export of live animals and its relevance for the actually looked like, but rather seem to echo the elephant sent to the Avar khagan, let us return to typical elements of the portrayals in the period’s another, no less interesting point in Claudian’s pattern books (Fig. 5).119 above-cited panegyric: the carved ivory panels In any case, live elephants only reached the inscribed with golden letters proclaiming European regions of the former Roman Empire Stilicho’s fame. It requires no great flight of on rare occasions during the ensuing centuries. the imagination to recognise the reference to

117 Rance 2003. 120 Annales Regni Francorum s.a. 802, ed. Kurze 1895, 117. 118 Onar 2013, 143, Fig. 7. 121 Cf. Hardt 2017. 119 Cf. the discussion in Cutler 1985b. 122 For a brief discussion, cf. Ševčenko 2002, 76–78.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 54 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ presentation diptychs, one of the undoubtedly from the third century.127 A letter written by most remarkable genres of late antique carved St. Augustine around 390 would suggest that ivories that became highly popular during the ivory writing tablets remained in use even final decades of the fourth century.123 around the time of the appearance of presenta- The indirect forerunners of these pairs of tion diptychs, notwithstanding that in view of leaves can be traced to at least the first century, to their high value, these tablets were obviously the imperial letters of appointment sent to the only used by the wealthy for regular correspond- provincial governors known as codicilli, “little ence.128 Mention is also made of calculi eburnei in- books”, which were assembled from two or, if scribed with the names of the proconsuls that necessary, more wooden panels joined by cord or were read out in the presence of the judges for metal clasps, while the text was written onto the the assembled citizens of Carthage in the early wax-coated inner side. It would appear that with fifth century,129 which some scholars believe to time, some appointments began to be written on have been ivory writing tablets.130 However, papyrus which was then enclosed between the given the passage’s broader context, calculi could panels, which thus functioned as envelopes. equally well refer to the gaming pieces used in Although our sources fail to reveal how wide- board games, and thus the interpretation of the spread this practice actually might have been, it bishop of Carthage’s words remains somewhat would seem that in the fourth century, some of uncertain.131 these “envelopes” were carved of ivory or made It seem quite likely that the carved ivory “en- of precious metal, particularly in cases of the ap- velopes” used in imperial administration served pointment of higher-ranking officials. If made of as the models for the similar carved tablets com- ivory, the outer side probably bore the name missioned by the aristocrats of the later fourth and/or portrait of the emperor, while the panels century with a view to commemorating signifi- or their inscriptions were occasionally gilded.124 cant events in the family’s life, which they then The fact that the wooden panels of the earlier distributed among their friends. Ivory diptychs Imperial period were in the later Roman period of this type are first mentioned in a decree issued replaced by ones carved of ivory seems to indi- by the emperor and co-emperors of the Eastern rectly confirm the low price of ivory, as also Roman Empire in 384, which forbade all but the shown by the price edict issued in 301. It should consuls to present gifts of ivory diptychs on the here be recalled that writing tablets carved of occasions of games provided by them.132 In all ivory – even if their size was in all likelihood likelihood, the rationale behind this prohibition much smaller than of the fourth-century dip- was the increasingly widespread nature of this tychs125 – are mentioned by Martial in the last practice or, better said, the regulation of the sums quarter of the first century,126 and their existence spent on games with a view to easing the finan- is confirmed by an actual find, perhaps dating cial burdens of officials of lesser means.133 On the testimony of the surviving diptychs, the regula- tion was effectively implemented: the currently 123 In his studies on the commissioners and the function of known diptychs demonstrably made in the east- diptychs, Alan Cameron convincingly argued that the objects ern empire can all be linked to games given by generally designated as consular diptychs should rather be the consuls of Constantinople – even if most of termed presentation diptychs: Cameron 1982; Cameron 2013; these finds come from the sixth century. The de- Cameron 2017. 124 For a comprehensive review of the forerunners and early cree of 384 also reveals that the custom of giving history of diptychs, cf. Cameron 2013, 175–179; for additional ivory presentation diptychs spread from east to useful data, cf. Delbrueck 1929, 3–16, Kollwitz 1959, 1009– 1110 (both with some interpretations that have since been discarded). The practice of gilding is suggested by 127 Visconti 1874; Cameron 2017, 306–307, Fig. 2; for the Themistius’s repeated references to carved gilded ivory proposed dating, cf. Cameron 2017, 305. tablets and “tablets made of gold” as symbols of high offices, 128 Aurelius Augustinus, Epistula XV.1, English translation: similarly as John Chrysostom speaks of “gold writing tablets” Parson 1951, 36. For the interpretation of St. Augustine’s in a like sense. Themistius, Oratio 18 (224), Oratio 23 (292– tabellae eburneae used for correspondence, cf. Zielinsky- 293): for the Greek text, see Delbrueck 1929, XLVII, for the Kinney 2017, 310, 316–317; Cameron 2017, 315–317. English translation, see Penella 2000, 118, 120. Iohannes 129 Quodvultdeus Carthaginensis, Liber promissionum et Chrysostomus, In illud: Vidi dominum II.288–90, Greek text and praedicatorum Dei XIII.15, Latin text and French translation: French translation: Dumortier 1981, 96–97. For the Braun 1964, 664–667. interpretation of these loci, cf. Delbrueck 1929, 5; Cameron 130 Delbrueck 1929, 10; Bowes 2001, 342–343, 354, note 24. 2013, 175–176, 178; Cameron 2017, 318–319. 131 Bowes 2001, 354, note 24; Cameron 2013, 192, note 76. 125 Cameron 2017, 305, 319–320. 132 Codex Theodosianus 15.9.1, English translation: Pharr 1952, 126 Martialis, Epigrammata XI.5, Latin text and English translation: 435. Shackleton Bailey 1993, 228–229. 133 Cameron 1982; Cameron 2013, 181; Cameron 2017, 315.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 55 west, where there were no legal restrictions on the venatio wears a crown, suggesting that he had their use and, judging from the number of sur- organised the games as a priest of the imperial viving exemplars, neither was one passed at any cult.138 time.134 While the number of diptychs presented as The majority of the currently known early dip- gifts on particular occasions is not known, a few tychs were carved in Rome in the 390s–400s and references would nevertheless suggest that con- they generally commemorate notable events in siderably more than a mere handful were made the lives of the aristocratic families of the Urbs, to commemorate a certain event. We learn from such as appointment to a leading office, a mar- Symmachus’ letters that a diptych and a silver riage, or a funeral.135 Stilicho’s presentation dip- bowl weighing two pounds were customary tychs commissioned for the Milan games cele- parts of the “gift parcels” sent to the prominent brating his consulship mentioned by Claudian individuals with whom the family maintained were contemporaneous with the pieces made in good connections on the occasion of the games Rome in the 390s–430s, an indication that the organised in Memmius’s name. In Rome, this custom first attested in Constantinople had “parcel” conformed to the gifts generally handed gained popularity in the imperial court of the out when questorian and praetorian games were Western Roman Empire, too. As far as we know, held, and the other contemporaneous sources none of the carved panels made for this particu- leave no doubt that this practice was not exclu- lar occasion have survived; however, the two sive to the Urbs.139 Moreover, Claudian’s leaves of a diptych portraying the magister mili- above-cited poem clearly alludes to the fact that tum alongside his wife and son, probably made on the occasion of Stilicho’s consular games, dip- in the 390s – most likely in 396 – have by lucky tychs were presented not only to the high and chance weathered the centuries.136 There are a mighty, but also to a part of the common folk.140 few carvings which were made with a view to Finally, in some instances it seems likely, in oth- commemorating events similar to the games pro- ers it is quite certain that the diptychs commis- vided by Stilicho, which are generally dated to sioned for a particular occasion were carved with the onset or the early decades of the fifth century differing iconographies.141 Thus, we have good on stylistic grounds. However, these do not bear reason to believe that the surviving pieces repre- any inscriptions or visual elements that would sent but a fraction of the many hundreds handed enable the identification of the portrayed persons out on each occasion already at the end of the or events, or of the latters’ location and time, or fourth century,142 to the extent that Richard of the place and date where and when they were Delbrück, who assembled the detailed catalogue made. These pieces are therefore dated on the of these diptychs argued that tens of thousands strength of their stylistic affinities with pieces of diptychs had probably been made between the that have a known provenance and can be se- final decades of the fourth and the earlier sixth curely dated, and are generally considered to century, and that their overall number probably have been made in Rome or more broadly in ran into hundreds of thousands.143 northern Italy. Nevertheless, we cannot reject out Obviously, we have no way of knowing what of hand the possibility that some of these diptych price was asked for the carved leaves, either indi- leaves include exemplars from the eastern em- vidually or in their entirety, commissioned by pire, even if there is nothing to confirm this be- various officials and members of the elite – but yond any shadow of doubt: the association with we do have some idea of the vast sums spent by the eastern capital of a single fifth-century dip- Roman aristocrats on their own or their sons’ tych, probably commissioned by one of the praetorian games in the earlier fifth century. Constantinopolitan consuls in 414, is also based Olympiodorus records that Probus spent 1200 on indirect evidence.137 It seems likely that the pounds of gold on his games in the early 420s, Venatio Leaf in the Louvre originates from one of Symmachus spent 2000 in 401, while Maximus the western provinces since the patron providing spent 4000 around 411, the equivalent of 86,400,

138 Delbrueck 1929, 9, 221–223, N57; Kollwitz 1959, 111; 134 The appearance and the main phases in the history of the Volbach 1970, 53, Nr. 58; Alföldi-Rosenbaum 1983, 34, type have been covered by Cameron 2013. 36–37; Cameron 2013, 182. 135 Cameron 2011, 712–740; Cameron 2013, 185. 139 Cameron 2013, 179–180, 205–206. 136 Delbrueck 1929, 247–248; Cameron 1982, 126; Torp–Kiilerich 140 Cameron 2013, 205. 1989; Cameron 2016. The diptych’s association with Stilicho 141 Cf. Cameron 2011, 716–730; Cameron 2013, 185. has been recently challenged by von Rummel 2007, 206–211. 142 Cameron 2017, 301–302, 311. 137 Cameron 2015. 143 Delbrueck 1929, 10.

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144,000, and 288,000 solidi, respectively.144 Quite prices and their proportions relative to each obviously, the expenditures of others and the ex- other undoubtedly changed from one period to penses of other occasions were by no means as the next, yet there seems to be no reason to as- extravagant.145 It hardly seems likely that the sume a drastic rise in the price of ivory, at least carved ivories had accounted for the greater por- judging from the number of diptychs suggested tion of the costs. Suffice it here to recall that ac- by the sources. cording to the price edict of 301, the price of a In the light of the above, it would be a reason- first-class African lion was maximised at 150,000 able assumption that the conditions at the turn of denarii, a second-class lion at 125,000 denarii, the century had undergone a fundamental trans- while the price of first- and second-class lioness- formation in the wake of the political changes in es was 125,000 and 100,000 denarii, respectively; the earlier fifth century, meaning that the late the acquisition of a leopard of the first or second Roman situation cannot be automatically project- class cost 100,000 or 75,000 denarii, respectively.146 ed onto the subsequent centuries. Yet, it would As we can see, even the cheapest beast cost 160- appear that the new political constellation with fold more than a kilogram of ivory, while a first- its far-reaching consequences had little impact on class lion was 300-fold more expensive. the circulation of ivory in the empire’s western Obviously, when making comparisons, it should half. Even if traffic along the trade routes had in- be borne in mind that a larger tusk or, better said, deed diminished or had even come to a tempo- its middle section, sufficed for no more than one rary standstill after the Vandals established them- to three pairs of leaves, depending on the size of selves in North Africa, this did not apparently the diptych.147 The tusk’s two ends could be used lead to a halt in the flow of raw ivory reaching for producing a variety of other objects and Italy or, in a broader context, the post-Roman therefore the person who commissioned the dip- west. The availability of ivory on the markets of tych did not necessarily have to pay for the entire Italy and the “west” in the middle third of the tusk. Even so, the overall cost of the 10–12 kg of fifth century and in the ensuing period is indicat- raw ivory needed for one or two pairs of leaves ed by two circumstances. Firstly, the diptychs can be estimated as 4500–5500 denarii at the which on the strength of their inscriptions can be 301 price of ivory, without the wage of the securely associated with Italian or, in a broader eborarius, which is not mentioned in the edict.148 sense, western persons and/or events.150 The Symmachus’ silver bowls weighing two pounds ivory pyxides and other carved ivories made be- would have cost much more: calculating with a tween the fifth and seventh centuries that are be- price of 6000 denarii per pound of silver and the lieved to have been made in workshops active in wage of 300 denarii specified for a first-class gold- the west,151 even if the location of one or another smith149 adds up to 12,600 denarii. Obviously, workshops is occasionally challenged,152 can also be assigned here. Research in this field is bedev- 144 Olympiodorus Thebaicus, Historiae Frg. 41.2 (ed. Blockley) illed by the fact that workshop finds indicating (= Frg. 44, ed. Müller), Greek text and English translation: places of production have so far only been re- 153 Blockley 1983, 204–207. For the interpretation of the text and ported from fourth- and sixth–seventh-century the persons mentioned in it, cf. PLRE II.749–751 s.v. Petronius Rome,154 and late antique Alexandria.155 The Maximus 22; Cameron 1984; for the sums, cf. Brown 2012, written sources add little to the already known 16–17. 145 workshops: a decree mentioning the ivory carv- Let us take, for example, the case of Symmachus: compared 156 to the expenditure of 2000 pounds of gold for Memmius’s ers (eborarii) of Constantinople issued in 337, a praetorian games, he spent considerably less on his own letter written by Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria consular games, at least judging from the value of the gifts he (ca. 376–444) in the 430s, in which he meticulous- handed out on the two occasions, cf. Cameron 2013, 205–206. ly lists the various influential people in the 146 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 32.1–6, ed. Crawford– Constantinopolitan court to be bribed through Reynolds 1979, 179. For earlier prices, cf. also Bomgardner 2001, 211. 147 von Bargen 1994, 51, Abb. 3. 150 Cf. Cutler 1993, 7. 148 Cameron 2013, 185–186, regarded this as rather high 151 Cf., e.g., Volbach 1970; Volbach 1977. compared to the price of raw ivory, while Cutler 1987, 434, 152 Cf. Caillet 1986; Kollwitz 1959, 1117–1134; Drauschke assumed that the wage of the ivory-carver would not have 2011b, 124, with further literature. been unaffordable, at least judging from the wages of other 153 St. Clair 1996. craftsmen listed in the price edict of 301. 154 Crypta Balbi: Ricci 2001, 336, Nos II.4.3–5. 149 Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium 30.9–10 (ed. Lauffer 1971, 155 Rodziewicz 2003; Rodziewicz 2007, 51, 269–271, Cat. nos 191) = 28.9–10 (ed. Crawford–Reynolds 1979, 179): De 659–660, 663–666; Rodziewicz 2009, 84–89; Török 2005, 260– argento hoc est pusula primi pondum I (denariis) VI, 268. Argent{i}ario artifici in operis primi in pondum I (denariis) 156 Codex Theodosianus 13.4.2, English translation: Pharr 1952, CCC. 390–391.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC SIXTH- AND SEVENTH-CENTURY ELEPHANT IVORY FINDS FROM THE CARPATHIAN BASIN 57 various gifts, including ivory furniture,157 and Constantinople during the earlier sixth centu- the carvings that can be linked to specific cities ry, 161 as well as by the fifth- and sixth-century based on their inscriptions. There were doubtless carvings made in the workshops of the capital or many more late antique ivory workshops than in other eastern centres. The current corpus of these centres, whose existence and activity can- finished ivory products and the sizes of the sur- not be demonstrated beyond any shadow of viving objects offer some indication of their costs. doubt.158 Some of these lay in Italy, in Byzantine The current evidence suggests not only that territory, after Justinian’s reconquista, and thus do sources of raw ivory remained accessible through- not challenge the availability of raw ivory in the out the fourth to sixth centuries, but also that the west. price of ivory had not changed substantially The other finds to be considered in this respect compared to what is stipulated in the price edict are the purse rings, ubiquitous among the grave of 301, at least judging from the increasingly larg- goods of Merovingian-period burials,159 which er sizes of the diptychs during the fifth century, also reached the western half of the Carpathian from the greater thickness of the late antique Basin.160 Their widespread use and contexts as pieces compared to the ninth–twelfth-century well as this mode of the utilisation of ivory clear- Byzantine pieces, and from certain details of the ly reveal that even though purse rings are princi- employed carving techniques attesting to the pally recovered from more lavishly furnished more wasteful use of ivory, all points highlighted burials, they did not represent luxury articles by Anthony Cutler in his study of the formal and that could solely be afforded by the upper social technological traits of late antique ivory carv- echelons – which, obviously, does not automati- ings.162 He has convincingly argued that the cally imply that it was a quotidian object that price of ivory could not have been unreasonably could be easily acquired. high and thus it was not a luxury commodity af- As we have already briefly noted in relation to fordable to a very few, at least until the mid-sixth the restoration of East Roman rule over Italy, it is century. hardly inconceivable and moreover seems quite plausible that the overwhelming majority of 2.5. Decline in the volume of ivory from ivory reaching the “west” had been transported the later sixth century north and thence to other destinations along the Egyptian route that had played a prominent role A closer look at the chronological position of the in Roman times already before the establishment finished products immediately reveals a major of Constantinople’s direct political overlordship. change sometime after the mid-sixth century Alexandria had obviously retained her role in compared to what we have seen in the above: un- this trade during the later centuries of Antiquity like in the preceding century, ivory became a rare too. In addition to the role played in redistribu- commodity, or at least a rarely worked one in tion afforded by the city’s geographic location, both the Eastern Roman and the more westerly the workshop finds also attest to local processing territories. Presentation diptychs, undoubtedly and to the production of finished articles that the “type fossils” of late antique ivory articles, were then traded on Mediterranean markets. are unsuitable for determining the exact date of There is little direct information on the actual this change because the disappearance of the mechanisms of redistribution in the East Roman pieces that can be securely dated on the testimo- and Mediterranean world. What seems certain is ny of their inscription around the mid-sixth cen- that in the East Roman regions, the flow of raw tury can be explained by the decline of the office ivory remained uninterrupted in the earlier sixth of consulship.163 The dating of the known pyx- century, as shown by the high numbers of con­ ides and other carved ivories is far too uncertain sular and other diptychs commissioned in and broad as to be suitable for constructing a finer chronology. There is a general scholarly 157 In addition to various other articles, Cyril sent four ivory consensus that the number of ivory carvings de- chairs (chatedrae) and two ivory stools (scamna) to Paul the clined strongly in the final decades of the sixth Prefect, four ivory chairs and the same number of stools to century.164 However, this chronology can only be the prefect Chryseros, two ivory chairs and two stools to Domninus the chamberlain, and two ivory chairs to Solomon, Chryseros’s domestic: Cyrillus Alexandrinus, Epistula 96, 161 Delbrueck 1929, 107–148, 150–154, 188–209, N9–N31, N33– Latin text: Schwartz 1922–1923, 224–225; English translation: 34, N48–N53; Volbach 1970, 32–41, 45, 47–50, Nr. 8–30, McEnerney 1987, 151–153. 32–33, 42, 47–53; Kollwitz 1959, 1127–1131. 158 Cf. Cutler 1993, 9–13; Török 2005, 266. 162 Cutler 1985a, 26–37. 159 Drauschke 2011b, 119–123, with the earlier literature. 163 Cameron–Schauer 1982, 137–142. 160 Koncz–Bollók in press. 164 Cf. Cutler–Niewöhner 2016.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 58 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ broadly correlated with the general dating of the century,171 explaining how ivory carvings came purse rings, a type strongly welded to ivory as a to occupy such a prominent position in Caro­ raw material in the Merovingian world, which is lingian visual art and become one of the distinc- also known from the Carpathian Basin. Attested tive genres of the Carolingian renovatio. Yet, the since the fifth century, purse rings were widely amply documented recurrent recarving of late used during the sixth century, they were often antique panels during the Carolingian period deposited in burials, and on the testimony of the also implies that tusks were not readily available securely datable pieces, they retained their popu- in unlimited quantities.172 It would appear that larity up to the middle third of the seventh cen- although the sources of raw elephant ivory part- tury.165 This can be better reconciled with the ly changed as compared to Late Antiquity, the chronological sequence in which the break in the ivory trade began to approximate the volume northward trade of ivory from Aksum is dated to during the centuries of Late Antiquity around the early seventh century, even if based on con- the tenth century,173 providing the material basis troversial arguments.166 The extinction of the of the high number of splendid ivory carvings North African elephant (Loxodonta africana pharao­ produced between the mid-tenth and mid-elev- hensis Deraniyagala, 1948),167 perhaps in conse- enth century.174 quence of the earlier over-hunting, may also Aside from the natural causes mentioned in have contributed to the emerging shortage of the foregoing, the political changes in the Red ivory, which is not negated by the handful of Sea region as well as the slightly later ones in the Byzantine ivories that can be assigned to the pe- Near Eastern and Egyptian provinces of the riod between the seventh and ninth centuries on Eastern Roman Empire undoubtedly contributed the strength of their iconography and stylistic to the decline in ivory imports to the Mediter­ ­ traits.168 In the lack of Byzantine ivories that can ranean in the final decades of the sixth and the be securely dated to the earlier seventh century early decades of the seventh century. These and given the uncertain date of the known piec- changes were in part precipitated by the earlier es, the assumed “shortage” does not preclude sixth-century political restructuring in the west- that raw ivory, at least in moderate quantities, ern Indian region so crucial to the Roman Indian had reached Byzantine workshops. A few refer- Ocean trade, which in turn led to looser contacts ences in the written sources mentioning ivory with the west and a decline in the volume of carvings reaching the west from the Byzantine trade in its wake.175 On the testimony of the ar- world in the earlier ninth century seem to sug- chaeological record, this period coincides with gest that the production of carved ivories merely the establishment of livelier connections between abated, providing convincing arguments for the the communities of the Swahili coast first with continuity of production in the east.169 Even so, it the Sasanians and then with the Arab world.176 is quite obvious that from the late sixth or the The shift in trade routes in the southern Red Sea earlier seventh century onward, ivory was more region brought a major decrease in traffic: for ex- scarcely available than previously in the ample, ports such as Berenike, which had earlier Byzantine territories, and that this state of affairs played a key role, were abandoned in the earlier persisted until the last decades of the ninth or the sixth century.177 Aksum, which had played a tenth century.170 In the west, we witness the gra­ prominent role in the south to north distribution dual rise of raw ivory – no matter how slight – of ivory arriving from the continent’s interior in from the final third of the eighth century. The trade routes connecting the westerly half of the European continent with North Africa were 171 McCormick 2001, 546–547. slowly revived in the last decades of the eighth 172 The most exhaustive corpus of these finds remains Gold­ schmidt 1914. Several new studies address the problem of the “court workshop” active in the court of Charlemagne (and 165 Drauschke 2011b, 119, 122, Abb. 53. his successors), in part in a positivist, and in part in a critical 166 Phillipson 2009, 358. For the weaknesses of monocausal vein: Fillitz 1999; Jülich 2014. Examples for the re-use of late explanations, particularly in relation to the expansion of the antique ivory carvings are cited by Effenberger 1999. For the Arab sphere of influence as the main dynamic behind the route leading to Western Europe through the Arab world, cf. changes in the region, cf. Power 2012. also Guérin 2013. 167 Zeuner 1963; Cutler 1987, 442. 173 Cutler 1985a, 31–37. See above for the western African 168 Cutler–Niewöhner 2016. routes (pp. 45–46, 50) and for the role of the Swahili coast in 169 Cutler 1994, 199–200; Cutler–Niewöhner 2016, 106, note 63. the ivory trade. 170 For the corpus of tenth–eleventh-century Byzantine carvings, 174 Cutler 2008, 37. cf. Goldschmidt–Weitzmann 1930; Goldschmidt–Weitz­ 175 Power 2012, 198–202. mann 1934 (which also includes objects made of bone). For a 176 Pradines 2018. modern coverage, cf. Cutler 1994. 177 Power 2012, 63.

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Late Antiquity,178 and the other Red Sea states, er role in the processing and redistribution of which had until then enjoyed immense revenues ivory – the single difference was that amidst the from trade, came under tremendous political new political conditions, the ships earlier travel- pressure.179 At the same time, the reorganisation ling to Rome and Constantinople now had new of the East Roman frontier defences in the Near destinations. East and the Red Sea region under Justinian left greater room for manoeuvre for Byzantine allies, whether polities such as Aksum or local, partly 3. The value of the sixth–seventh-century ivory Christian Arab tribes.180 Contributing to the dis- articles of the Carpathian Basin and the origin ruption of the regional balance was the active in- of their raw material tervention of the king of Aksum – with support from Byzantium – in the southern part of the While the exact value of the ivory articles brought Arabian Peninsula: he occupied Ḥimyar, whence to light in the Carpathian Basin cannot be as- he was ousted in the 570s by the Sasanian army, sessed in the lack of any factual information on which then established its control over the routes the middle third of the sixth century, the sources leading east.181 The military defeat and the sub- at our disposal nevertheless provide some point- stantial decline in the traffic along the eastern ers in this respect. We can best illustrate this with trade routes played a major role in the grave cri- the incomplete set of ten ivory gaming pieces sis that shook the Ethiopian power centre. from Grave 12 of the Mosonszentjános burial Adding to the blow inflicted on the Eastern ground whose total weight is 172.6 g.183 The small- Roman sphere of interest, although beyond the er pieces have a diameter of 2 cm, the larger ones empire’s borders, was the war launched by the a diameter of 2.3–2.4 cm, and the clearly visible Sasanians against Byzantium in 602. The rapid nerve channels on them indicate that they had succession of Persian victories from 610 onward been made from the middle or distal section of saw the fall of Jerusalem in 614, of Alexandria in one or more tusks – in other words, the smaller 618, and then of all of Egypt. And though the utilitarian articles were cut out of sections that Persian rule lasted no more than a decade, col- were less suitable for the production of wider lapsing under the successful counter-offensive of (larger) objects such as diptychs, pyxides or fur- Heraclius (r. 610–641), the new conquerors, the niture panels.184 According to the 150 denarii per Muslim troops arriving in the later 630s, came to Roman pound specified for ivory in the price stay for good. Their victories in the Near East edict of 301, the total weight of 172.6 g represent- culminated in the occupation of Alexandria in ed a value of 80 denarii, which, counting with a 641, which had been previously reconquered by gold coin weighing 5.5 g, came to 0.36 g of gold the Byzantines in 629. Given the turbulent events using the 1200 denarii to the aureus conversion of the later sixth and the earlier seventh centu- and to 0.22 g of gold using the 2000 denarii to the ries, it comes as no surprise that supplying the aureus conversion. Considering the skills needed Mediterranean markets with ivory from either for manufacturing gaming counters, their pro- Indian or eastern African sources ran into diffi- duction could hardly have taken a whole day for culties, or that the trade system that had previ- an eborarius with a well-equipped workshop and ously met the demands of the entire Mediterranean thus his wages could hardly have substantially Basin for long centuries, even if with the occa- exceeded the cost of the raw material.185 The sional setback, now fell into a deep slumber for costs would have been perceptibly higher at the almost two hundred years. However, seeing the time of the Muziris Papyrus: counting with an products of the ivory workshops active in the aureus weighing 7.3 g, the raw material for the set Muslim world during the eighth century,182 it is of ten gaming counters would have cost 1.76 g of quite obvious that Alexandria retained her earli- gold if using trimmed tusk and 2.47 g of gold if

178 Török 2009, 539. 179 Power 2012, 63–75, 190–198. 180 Power 2012, 66–67. For the Arab tribes allied to Byzantium, 183 For the finds and their measurements, cf. Koncz–Tóth 2016. cf. Schönléber 2013, with the earlier literature. 184 Cf. von Bargen 1994, 51, Abb. 3, 53. 181 The process is briefly reviewed by Power 2012, 61–86. For a 185 According to the price edict of 301, the daily wage of a discussion of the events set in a broader context, cf. Bowersock craftsman painting pictures was 150 denarii, while an artisan 2012, 3–28; Bowersock 2013, esp. 63–119. making wall mosaics and marble floors earned a maximum 182 Engemann 1987; Humbert 1987; Haldon–Brubaker 2001, of 50 denarii: Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium VII.5–7, 9, ed. 76–78; Kessler 2007; Rodziewicz 2009, 89–91; Evans–Ratliff Lauffer 1971, 118. Cf. Cutler 1987, 450–451, on the limited (ed.) 2012, 45–50, 177–180, 214, 221–222, Cat. nos 24, 120–121, time available for the creation of presentation diptychs of the 145, 153. highest artistic quality.

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/25/21 11:50 PM UTC 60 ÁDÁM BOLLÓK – ISTVÁN KONCZ using complete tusks. Counting with the roughly ivory articles in the Carpathian Basin during the 4.5 g weight of Justinian I’s solidus, this would sixth–seventh centuries was based on these have meant a value of half a solidus, while count- prices and the availability of ivory in the ing with the prices of 301, the cost of the raw ma- Mediterranean in the final decades of the sixth terial would have been a negligible sum for a and the early decades of the seventh century. It wealthier individual. The set undoubtedly con- seems more likely that the little interest shown tained more pieces and, judging from the still towards the ivory carvings from the East Roman visible pigment patches, the counters were paint- lands or Italy should much rather be sought in ed, which would have incurred additional costs. the role played by ivory and certain types of the If, however, the pigments were not explicitly rare Mediterranean articles made thereof in barbarian and expensive,186 the value of the surviving piec- societies. Despite their high aesthetic value, cer- es of the set could hardly have exceeded one soli- tain valuable artefact classes manufactured of dus – it does not seem too far-fetched to reckon ivory in the Mediterranean world such as dip- with this price in the middle third of the sixth tychs were not particularly suited to integration century, at a time when there was still a percepti- into the material cultures of societies with differ- ble abundance of ivory. Irrespective of whether ent aesthetic values engendered by their cultural the set of counters had been purchased or had backgrounds and material needs. Moreover, ele- been presented as a gift, its value lay less in the phant ivory offered less adequate means for ac- price of the raw material and the manufacturing cumulating wealth and hoarding in barbarian so- costs than in its exotic nature, coming from a far- cieties, given its low potential for recycling and away region, and the game that could be played for using smaller pieces of a given object if the with it, even more so if the counters had come need for a quick mobilisation of capital arose. into the deceased’s possession as booty from one Neither were ivory objects well-suited to being or another campaign. readily reworked according to the taste of local The ivory purse rings found in Langobard- barbarian elites or for being repaired if they be- period burials represented an even smaller mon- came damaged. Thus, it is hardly surprising that etary value, as did two articles from two Avar- there was little receptiveness towards these for- period burials, namely a purse clasp and a eign goods among these communities, at least spindle-whorl or a conical gaming piece.187 The judging from the grave inventories.190 single exception among these finds is the pyxis The last question that remains to be briefly ad- from Grave II of Žuráň in the Moravian Basin, dressed concerns the source of the raw material beyond the region discussed here. Although the used for the ivory articles found in the Carpathian weight of this strongly fragmented pyxis is not Basin. On the testimony of the sources discussed known, its reconstructed overall mass and its in the above, we have good reason to believe that craftsmanship, the skills needed for its manufac- similarly to the majority of the ivories of the late ture, eclipse by far the technical know-how need- antique Mediterranean world, and particularly ed for the production of the gaming pieces from the ones dating from the mid-sixth century when Mosonszentjános.­ The one-time price of these the Indian Ocean trade declined, the pieces objects,188 produced in larger series, can be broad- reaching the Carpathian Basin had been manu- ly put in the range between 5 and 15 solidi (al- factured from the tusks of African elephants.191 though probably nearer to the former), a consid- However, this supposition can only be conclu- erable sum compared to the annual income and sively confirmed or rejected after the archae- living costs of peasants and workers, but hardly ometric analyses of the articles in question.192 an outstanding expenditure for the middle class- es or the more wealthy.189 Our main conclusion in our other study, name- 190 For a detailed discussion of our main insights, cf. Koncz– ly that neither the high price of ivory, nor the Bollók in press. drying up of the sources can, in themselves, be 191 Although irreproducible, the analysis of several Western invoked as an explanation for the scarcity of European purse rings yielded similar tentative results. For a detailed discussion, cf. Drauschke 2011a; Drauschke– Banerjee 2007. 192 These analyses are currently in progress. We are grateful to our reviewers, Gergely Csiky and Péter Somogyi, for their 186 The analysis of the pigment is currently in progress. insightful and perceptive comments and suggestions, all of 187 Cf. Koncz–Bollók in press, for a complete list. which have been instrumental in a more precise formulation 188 Cf. Cutler 1987, 452–453. of certain key points. Research for the present paper was 189 Based on the contemporaneous data on prices and wages supported by the National Research, Development and collected and reviewed by Morrisson–Cheynet 2002. Innovation Office (NKFIH) through OTKA Grant NN 113157.

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ELEFÁNTCSONTTÁRGYAK A 6–7. SZÁZADI KÁRPÁT-MEDENCÉBEN: Az elefántcsont forrása, forgalma és értéke a késő ókorban és a kora középkorban

Bollók Ádám – Koncz István

Tanulmányunk a hellenisztikus kor és a kora középkor az elefántcsont viszonylag széles körben elérhető és ko- közötti évszázadok mediterrán elefántcsont-kereskedel- rántsem megfizethetetlen árú luxuscikk volt. Különösen mének két fő kérdését vizsgálja: a Földközi-tenger me- feltűnő ez az alacsony ár a Diocletianus-kori árrendelet dencéjébe eljutó elefántcsont-nyersanyag lehetséges for- idején, amely a 150 évvel korábbi állapotnál is sokkal rásait és értékét kíséreli meg felderíteni. A rendelkezésre alacsonyabb árakat rögzít. A késő ókori faragványok mé- álló írott és tárgyi források áttekintése alapján az elefánt- rete, nagy száma és megmunkálási technikájuk alapján agyar származási helyeként a hellenisztikus kor, az ókor úgy tűnik, az utóbbi viszonyok fennmaradhattak a ké- utolsó és a kora középkor első évszázadai között egy- sőbbi évszázadok során is, ha konkrét monetáris érték aránt számba vehető Északnyugat- és Kelet-Afrika, vala- nem is rendelhető a nyersanyaghoz, és így érdemes na- mint az indiai szubkontinens. A 6. és a 7. században, ami- gyon óvatosan eljárni az 5–7. századi árviszonyok becs- korra a Kárpát-medencei langobárd és kora avar kori ré- lése során. gészeti emlékanyagból eddig megismert néhány elefánt- A Kárpát-medencéből ismert 6–7. századi tárgyak csont-faragvány (játékkorongok, tarsolygyűrűk, egy tar- méret- és súlyadatai, továbbá kidolgozásuk munkaigé- solyzáró és egy pyxis) keltezhető, az elefántcsont legvaló- nye alapján úgy tűnik, hogy a Földközi-tenger medencé- színűbben afrikai, azon belül is kelet-afrikai forrásokól jének piacain e tárgyak egyenkénti (a mosonszentjánosi juthatott el a Földközi-tenger medencéjének piacaira, játékkorongkészlet esetében pedig a szett) ára nem halad- ahonnan már megmunkált formában, importtárgyként hatta meg jelentősen a fél–egy solidusnyi értéket. Kivételt kerülhettek a Közép-Duna-medencébe. A kelet-afrikai, csak a vitatott keltezésű, a Kárpát-medencétől északnyu- Vörös-tengert érintő útvonalakon folyó elefántcsont-ke- gatra, a Morva-medencében előkerült žurányi pyxis je- reskedelem fontosságát és jellegét az írott források több lent, de annak ára sem haladhatta meg jelentősen a né- helyen részletezik, ám pontos kiterjedését és működését hány solidusos értéket (tág határok között 5 és 15 solidus az újabb régészeti adatoknak, elsősorban kelet- és dél-af- közé becsülve az árát). Látva tehát, hogy az elefántcsont rikai feltárásoknak köszönhetően kezdjük megismerni. mint nyersanyag a gepida és a langobárd korban a medi- Az indiai forrásokat ebben az időben természetesen nem terrán világ piacain bőséggel rendelkezésre állt, ritkává lehet kizárni, de a rendelkezésünkre álló adatok alapján válása pedig a kora avar korra, annak is inkább a máso- ezek szerepe kisebb lehetett. A történeti és régészeti ada- dik felére, végére tehető, nem tűnik valószínűnek, hogy tok alapján megrajzolt kép pontosítását, illetve megerősí- az elefántcsont tárgyaknak a gepida, a langobárd és a tését vagy esetleges helyesbítését elsősorban a folyamat- kora avar kori régészeti hagyatékban megfigyelhető rit- ban lévő, valamint a jövőben megvalósuló természettu- kasága a nyersanyag eleve elérhetetlen vagy kiemelke­ dományos vizsgálatoktól várhatjuk. dően drága voltával lenne magyarázható. Szerepet játsz- Írásunk másik fele az ókori árviszonyok alakulását hatott mellőzöttségükben, hogy ellentétben a nemesfé- vizsgálja. A hellenisztikus korból, a Kr. u. 2. század köze- mekkel, szükség esetén az értékük nem volt könnyen pére keltezhető Muziris Papiruszról és a 301-es híres ár- mobilizálható, sem nyersanyaguk nem volt minden to- maximáló rendeletből ismert áradatok, valamint a késő vábbi nélkül újrahasznosítható. Sokkal inkább azonban ókori elefántcsont-faragványok alapján kikövetkeztet­ magának az elefántcsontnak, az abból készült mediterrán hető értékviszonyok alapján a tanulmány arra a követ- eredetű tárgytípusok nagy részének a barbár társadal- keztetésre jut, hogy a Kr. u. első évezred első felében, s makban betöltött szerepében, vagy éppen annak hiányá- különösen is a késő ókor évszázadai folyamán, egészen ban kereshetjük az okát, hogy e közösségek tagjai köré- a 6. század utolsó harmadáig, a 7. század első évtizedeiig­ ben nem mutatkozott jelentős érdeklődés irántuk.

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